I have an 04 RX-8 and have about 40,00 miles on it. As part of the routine maintenance that I have been doing I checked my cabin air filter today. It was replaced by the dealer once at about 25K.

When I removed it today...it was full of dirt and bits of leaves, and lint.....absolutely plugged.

I looked at the filter...and it seems quite strong. The elements are not paper...and so i thought.....WTF....I'm going to try and clean it. I knocked off all the big crud...sprayed it with K&N filter cleaner from my intake.......let it sit for 5 minutes...and rinsed it off with cold water.

It came out perfectly clean...nice and white

I should have taken pictures of this...it would make a good DIY...oh well. Next Time

The air flow from the fan is much better, the funny noise from the fan is gone...and my heater and A/C work muck better

Well worth the 15 minutes it took to do this!

 

a leaf blower to the back side does wonders also... nice note.

beers

 

I tried to blow it out with my compressed air...it got rid of some of the crud...but the filter was black...and still plugged up. The K&N cleaner amde it come clean and white...I was impressed. The filter looked good as new.

 

this has got me thinking... about all the stuff left in the passage to the air cleaner? might have to blow that out next time... i wonder if you procedure would work with the aynaide filter?


beers

 

I think that it wouldn't work on the alydehyde filter....I doubt it would be water compatible??
I'm afraid I can't justify that kind of cash for a cabin filter anyway!

 

Thanks dan.

I'm going to follow your lead when the time is right.

 

Stupid question and I'd like a serious responce lol.
How hard/easy is it to get to the cabin filter? When I drop off my 8 for the recall I'm going to ask them to do the 30k mile maitence they didnt do before I bought the car (aparently bought it at 31k). Would like to save a few $$$ by having them not do a few portions of the maitence yanno.

 

Clavius, you can buy the cabin air filter from the parts guy. Should be under $30. The MPV and the RX-8 use the same filter type/shape.

 

easy.

a diy is in the diy section is excellent..

beers

 

Oh kewl thanks Swoope.. was just gonna ask if there was one on this
How much is the K&N filter cleaning stuff and would a Advanced Auto Parts carry it?

 

I'm sure you could use soap/detergent/fantastik......whatever...I just happened to have the filter cleaner...and I thought it would probably work.........

 

For the cleaner AND oil, usually, less than 10 bucks.


if you just want the bottle of cleaner, about 6 bucks.

 

The Aldehyde filter is about $46 from the cheaper online Mazda dealers.

It is supposed to be far superior to the stock filter.

 

Where, exactly, is the cabin filter located?

1.3L

 

There is a DIY do it yourself thread in that forum on how to replace cabin air filter. It is behind the glove box.

 

Ok just found the DIY for the cabin filter. My God this is a easy friggin thing to do. Going to do this myself definatly sometime next week.. maybe next weekend when I install my RB protection grills. I bet they charge over $50 for this service at the dealers lol

 

picked up mine for 35 shipped... dont know if i would do it again...

beers